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iong of the Battle of Seattle 



I in on tin' Stars find Stripes, l>ovs. 
We re going to have a time) 

\\ c fi c lii.ru i ii .1 on I willi 1 1 1 1 m i shout, 

lo u;i(lc in mild ;iii(] slime; 
Si unehod \ ii i:i< le .1 speech for I'l \z 1 1 I 

A ii( I Ii i II I > 1 1 wrolii» Was ui'iui-'; 

Pin on the flag, boys, pin it tight, 

\ in I sina I In i'lil mob son a 

< MOlt IS 

( ) 1 1 . wear tour country s Ha if, bins, 
A ik I make vour roaring I >ra \i . bovs. 
We love fli« law ! We eat 'era raw ! 
Pin on tin St a rs and St ripes, 

Tin i ii 1 1 k St a rs and St ri pes, boys, 

\ikI heal i In t fir r< d hot ; 
I .. I \' i i pons flash, brings whiti hot ash 

And ha-sten lo I Ik spot. 
Then s soiiicoik In re in town who t h i nl 

And do< >n l think like us ; 
Pin on I In !l i :.: and lak< your drinks, 

\\ i 'n fjoin . to mob l In cuss. 

Tin cm I I'i Stars i ik I Stripes, hoys, 

The Si »rialist s a n out ; 
I i \ n 1 1 ( In dope and I etch ?i rope. 

A rid put I In ni ill In rout . 
Lord sa \e n.*> from tin Socialists : 

To hadi - with the law ; 
Sn hit about w ith club and (ists. 

On head and back and jaw. 

Pin mi the Stars and Stripes, boys. 

The Socialists arc here; 
Oh, mak< vour braj^ and wax i tin ll.i _: . 

I .it out a mighty cheer. 
Tin \ I liiuk i arth might I" bctti r, hn\ s. 

We've sworn to mob such types; 
We're going to Ivnch and riot. boys. 

Pin on the Stars and Stripes. 



Seattle. Wasl 



IsliniLTlon. 



THE COLONEL 



AND HIS 



FRIENDS 



& ^upptesseb Plap 



A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS 

By HULET M. WELLS 



<& 



THE ISSUE IS NOT FLAGS 
BUT BREAD" 



AUQ3lW8^ 

THE COLONEL 



v 

zed 7 $ ~///&9o 



The Colonel and His Friends 

A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS 
By Hulet M. Wells 



c* 



DRAMATIS PERSONS 

Colonel A. J. Blather Editor of The Seattle Crimes 

■C. B. Blather Manager of The Seattle Crimes 

Joseph Blather Vice-President Crimes Printing Co. 

Miss Shortsight Blather's Stenographer 

Capt. Chas. Wilcox A Soldier of Fortune 

JErne Nordsk A Detective-Reporter 

Judge Win-slow A "Conservative Socialist" 

3£ate Sadler A Social Revolutionist 

Joseph Jarvis.. ...A Socialist Lecturer 

JFulton Walters ...Blather's Attorney 

S. Peele A Deputy Prosecutor 

-Mrs. Callender. 
-Judge Humpty Dumpty. 

Janitor, Clerk, Stenographers, Newspaper Reporters, Bailiff, Office Boy, 

Jurors and Spectators. 

ACT I. 

Scene — Blather's Office. Time, April 30, 1912. 

ACT II. 

Scene — Street corner by Crimes Bldg. Time, June 17, 1913. 

ACT III. 

Scene — Judge Humpty Dumpty's Court. Time, June 25, 1913. 
Two 



AND HIS FRIENDS 



Prologue 



LUCIUS — "Art thou not sorry for these heinous deeds?" 
AARON — "Ay, that I had not done a thousand more. 

Even now I curse the day — and yet, I think 
Few come within the compass of my curse — 
Wherein I did not some notorious ill: 
As kill a man, or else devise his death; 
Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it; 
Accuse some innocent, and foreswear myself; 
Set deadly enmity between two friends; 
Make poor men's cattle stray and break their necks; 
Set fire on barns and hay-stacks in the night, 
And bid the owners quench them with their tears. 
Oft have I digged up dead men from their graves, 
And set them upright at their dear friends' doors 
Even when their sorrows almost were forgot; 
And on their skins, as on the bark of trees, 
Have with my knife carved in Roman letters, 
'Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.' 
Tut! I have done a thousand dreadful things 
As willingly as one would kill a fly; 
And nothing grieves me heartily, indeed, 
But that I cannot do ten thousand more." 

— Titus AndronicUif. 

When the storms of the people's wrath and disgust had gathered about 
Federal Judge Hanford's head he did not know, because of his great stupor. 
Others, who were hovering about his unhappy fortunes, did know and took 
council among themselves. They sent Senator Samuel H. Piles to John Perry 
to see ''if the whole matter could not be chloroformd." "Yes," replied Perry, 
"it can." The Senator rubbed his hands after the manner of traders, and in- 
quired how. "Tell the old scoundrel to get out of public life and never show 
his face in the light of day again." In their extreme distress they saw "the 
Colonel." "Let the judge get after the Socialists, and he'll have all the mon- 
eyed interests and the patriot societies to fortify him. The charges can be 
made to appear as a Socialist persecution and so be defeated." Followed the 
Leonard Olson case, the Socialist Congressmen rising to the "point of highest 
privilege, impeaching Hanford, and his toboggan slide into infamous oblivion. 

That is Blethen's plan to save himself. He really cares nothing at all 
about flags. The nearest he ever came to earning the title of Colonel was 
to lead a cotillion as a tin soldier on the staff of a Governor. His son, C. B. 
Blethen, the father of Alden J., the Third, of great heraldry, is a tinseled 
epauletted Captain Jenks on the staff of a Governor, likewise. C. B. was of 
service age at the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, but he didn't fight 
for "his country." Perfectly real soldiers despise such men. 



Th 



ree 



THE COLONEL 

Blethen cares nothing about flags. He would advocate Socialism if he 
thought such a course would save him from the storm so surely gathering 
among the upright. If the trajectory of his wisdom were greater he would 
do so. 

Our cause does not suffer from him. If he could snatch the seven red 
stripes from the American flag he could not turn back the tide of Socialism, 
nor prevent the hatching of an enlightened and adequate civilization so long 
in incubation. 

In presenting "The Colonel and His Friends" we are fully conscious of 
our amateurish lines. At the same time we are fully aware of their unmask- 
ing power, and we know that to be the sole reason why we are not permitted 
to stage them. Bludgeon Big Business simply says the people must not 
know. That the third act is a travesty we freely acknowledge but we insist 
it is one for which we are not responsible. 

The testimony of witnesses, the arguments of defendants' counsel, the 
rulings and judgment, are all reproduced verbatim from the court's shorthand 
notes, and the argument on the law is given as exactly as it can be given from 
a trial in the Superior Court of King County, The State versus A. J. and C. 
B. Blethen, Judge John E. Humphries, presiding. 

BRUCE ROGERS. 



AND HIS FRIENDS 



ACT I. 

(Curtain rises on Blather's office in Crimes Bldg. Office boy and stenog- 
rapher at work. 

Through the open window comes the sound of the voice of a Socialist street 
speaker addressing a street crowd, followed by clapping of hands and shouts 
of approval. 

Then is heard the honk of an automobile horn, and A. J. Blather strides 
into the room in a furious rage. Throws desk into confusion while he speaks, 
and upsets various articles, while the cowering office boy repairs the damage.} 

BLATHER — Damn the damned, infernal, blackguarding, damned So- 
cialists, I wish the whole damned dirty outfit were in the penitentiary or in hell. 
It's a damned infernal outrage that patriotic, respected, God-fearing citizens 
like the Blather family have got to put up with a damned unwashed mob of 
Socialistic anarchists and anarchistic Socialists standing out in front of the 
Crimes office and preaching their damnable, dynamic doctrines. 

Everybody in Seattle knows that on Christmas the Editor of the Crimes 
gave away to his employes 63 turkeys ranging in weight from 7 to 19 lbs. at 
32 cents a pound, and to every newsboy a turkey dinner costing one dollar per 
plate, tipping all waiters one dollar each and the head waiters ten dollars, and 
yet an ill-smelling ranter can stand down there on a soap box and howl his in- 
sults at the Crimes. 

Every week I print the sermons of nine preachers in the Monday's Crimes, 
and yet a soft-headed fool of a Mayor, for the sake of what he calls free speech, 
refuses to allow the police to clean the town of these infernal Socialistic dyna- 
miters. Damn me, but this has got to stop. This is a country of law, and as 
long as Old Glory waves over the Seattle Crimes I'll have the law enforced 
if I have to shoot all the Socialist vermin in Seattle to do it. 

(Enter Wilcox, slightly intoxicated.) 

WILCOX — Howdy, Kernal. Y'aint peeved, are yuh? 

BLATHER— Who the devil are you, sir? 

WILCOX — I'm Capt. Chas. Wilcox. I'm a soldier of fortune. I'm a hero 
of many wars. You're a hero, too, Kernel. We're both heroes. You sent for 
me, Kernel, and here I am. 

BLATHER — Oh, this is Capt. Wilcox? Excuse me, sir. I am glad to 
know you. I'm proud, sir, to know a man who risked his life for the honor of 
Old Glory. I suppose you were a hero of many hard-fought battles. Were you 
ever shot as a result of your courage ? 

WILCOX — No, but I used to get half shot in order to keep up my courage. 

BLATHER — I knew you were a man of patriotic sentiments, Capt. Wil- 
cox, and I want your assistance. I am going to put the anarchistic Socialists 
out of business in this city. 

WILCOX — The Anarchistic Socialists? Why, they're all anarchists, ain't 
they, Kernel? 

BLATHER — All except Judge Winslow. He is the only true Socialist in 
this state. All the rest are dynamiters. 



THE COLONEL 

WILCOX — All right, Kernel. I get you. An' any time, Kernel, that you 
go after that red flag bunch, count on me. For the honor of Old Glory, Kernel. 
Have a drink (producing flash). 

BLATHER — No, thank you, I take mine at the Rainier Club. Now let's 
get down to business. I know you haven't any use for this guttersnipe bunch 
of calamity howling hoboes that call themselves Socialists. Here is the plan 
that I want you to help carry out. Tomorrow is what they call International 
Labor Day. They are going to have a parade which is to end in an outdoor 
meeting where some of their speakers will howl their damnable doctrines from 
a soap box. They are going to carry a red flag which they claim is an emblem 
of international brotherhood, but you and I know that it means dynamite. They 
have been to the Mayor and he told them that there was no law against them 
carrying the red flag alone, but that if they would carry the American flag with 
it, he would give them police protection. Well, you know what that means. 
The police are not going to hurt themselves protecting Socialists. 

Now I want you to get some good men to help you and wait in front of the 
saloon on this next corner, and when the parade reaches you rush out and start 
a rough house. Get hold of both flags and tear them off the staffs and run into 
the saloon with them. There will be some policemen there to keep the crowd 
out, and I will have a photographer in the saloon to take a picture of the torn 
flag desecrated by the Socialists. 

WILCOX — All right, I'll do my part. Now you want to have a reporter 
there to write the whole thing up and tell what a hero I am. 

BLATHER — Oh, the whole story is already in type. Bless you, we don't 
have to wait till things happen in order to write them up. The Crimes is a live 
newspaper. I have had a whole series of articles prepared and we will publish 
one each day until the town is too hot to hold this Socialist gang. 

WILCOX — Maybe they'll have the law on you, Kernel. 

BLATHER — To hell with the law. What do I care for that; laws are 
all right to use against this Socialist rabble, though if I had my way I wouldn't 
put a court to the expense of trying them. I'd round them up in bunches and 
feed them into the garbage incinerater. 

That would be the best use we could put that incinerater to. It's no good 
for anything else. It's another monument to the everlasting stupidity of that 
infernal fool, Thompson. Millions of dollars that man has cost this city. Noth- 
ing but a crack-brained idiot. That's all he is ! A pin-headed, doddering, 

double-damned Oh ! It always irritates me to think about that man 

Thomson. 

Well, as I was sajdng about the law. It can't reach me. It's been tried 
before and failed, and always will fail. The law can't be enforced without a 
judge and a prosecutor. The prosecuting attorney knows what's good for him, 
and as for judges . Why, I keep one on my staff. 

WILCOX — They got to hand it to you, Kernel. You make 'em eat o' 
your hand, don't you? 

BLATHER {taking up telephone) — Give me Mr. Hendricks. Hello. Mr. 
Hendricks? I'm sending in Capt. Wilcox. Have him written up and feature 
him in that story of Socialists desecrating flag. He is going to break up their 
parade. Get his picture and entitle it "Hero Who Saves Old Glory/' That's 



AND HIS FRIENDS 

all. (Puts up phone.) (To office boy) Here, George, show this gentleman in> 
to the city editor. Good day, Captain. 

WILCOX — S'long, Kernel. (Waving arms tipsily.) Hooray fer Old- 
Glory an' t'hell with the Socialists. 

(Enter Nordsk.) 

NORDSK — Good morning, Colonel. 

BLATHER — Well, have you done anything on those two cases yet? 

NORDSK— Which cases? 

BLATHER— Why, the R. H. Thomson case and the Socialists. 

NORDSK — No, I haven't done much yet. I can't work for nothing. L 
got to live. I got a good case against Thomson. That will take some time, 
though, but the Socialist case is easy. Most any stew bum will testify against: 
a Socialist for the price of a drink, and then your friend, Judge Winslow, will 
give us some good dope. If you'll pay me my regular wage, I'll work you up ' 
a case in two weeks that will put both Wells and Kate Sadler and the rest on 
the black list in this town. 

BLATHER — Do you know anything? 

NORDSK — I don't have to know anything. All I need is some witnesses. - 
I know a bum that got fired out of the Socialist Party for some crooked work, 
and is sore. He'll swear that they stole money from the party. Or I can get 
some fellow to swear that they tried to hire him to burn the Crimes building. 
Or I can prove that Kate Sadler and Wells are both free lovers. 

BLATHER — Well that free love story is a good one to spring on the 
Sadler woman. All you have to do is to mention that kind of thing about a 
woman and it sticks. But go after Wells on the flag issue. Work up a story 
about how he called the flag a dirty rag. We will make the dirty rag story a 
feature two or three times, and then after that whenever we mention Wells we 
will refer to him as the man who called the flag a "dirty rag." 

NORDSK — Well, all right — but the money — what about that? $8.00 a 
day is a detective's wage and I want to see that I get it. I don't want you to 
throw me down the way you did in the Hanford case. 

BLATHER — Well, what about the Hanford case? Damn you, don't you 
come kicking to me about being thrown down. I'll not stand for it, sir. Damned 
if I will. Didn't you get your money, and more than you were worth? 

NORDSK— Oh, I got $8.00 a day for 11 days! * What's that amount to? 
Didn't you promise to raise $8,000 to pay me and three other of the Burns 
operatives who were to appear as witnesses against Judge Hanford if we would 
leave the country till the case was over? 

BLATHER — See here. I told you that I would pay $4,000.00 myself if 
Mr. E. C. Humes, who had charge of the Hanford defense fund, would raise 
the rest. Well, Ballinger and I went to see Humes and he wouldn't go in on 
it. Then before we could raise the money anywhere else, the witnesses were 
subpoenaed. I did the best I could for you, and I won't have you whining 
around here about being stung. We were all stung ! Hanford was stung f 
That's another thing we've got to thank the damned Socialists for. 

NORDSK— But you promised me right on the start that if I didn't testify 
very strong against Hanford, and helped you all I could on the case, that I 
could have whatever was left over in the defense fund. 

Seveir 



THE COLONEL 

BLATHER — Yes, I told you that. Well, didn't you get what was left? 
NORDSK — But there wasn't anything left. 
BLATHER— Well, didn't you get what was left? 
NORDSK— O-o-h y-e-e-s. * 

BLATHER — Well, that's what I said you'd get. Now, listen to me. I'm 
not going to pay you any $8.00 a day to loaf around saloons. As soon as you 
get something good in the Thomson case, I'll pay whatever it's worth, and 
in the meantime I'll pay you a regular reporter's wages while you write up 
these Socialist stories. Now you can take it or leave it. 

NORDSK— I'll take it. 

BLATHER — Very well. Now get busy. Discredit the whole Socialist 
bunch. Debs is coming here pretty soon, and they will take in a lot of money 
at that meeting. Write up a story that the campaign manager embezzled the 
funds. 

You can connect Wells with the story by stating that the manager was a 
friend of Wells. 

My friend Judge Winslow can give you a good deal of help. He tells me 
that he is a real Socialist and that these other people have stolen the name. He 
will be up here presently along with some other invited guests. We are going 
to have a flag raising on the roof of the Crimes building and Judge Humpty 
Dumpty is to deliver the oration. George, see if any one is waiting. 

(Enter Judge Winslow and Mrs. Callender.) 

JUDGE WINSLOW— Good day, Colonel. This is Mrs. Callender, who, 
I think, can give you some valuable information about the anarchists, I. W. W.'s, 
sabotagers, and syndicalists, who call themselves Socialists. 

MRS. CALLENDER (volubly)— Oh, Colonel Blather, I'm so glad to 
meet you. I think it's just sweet of you to print Judge Winslow's letters. And 
that article you had about Kate Sadler was perfectly splendid* Why, the things 
that woman does are scandalous ! Why she told me I didn't know anything 
about Socialism. Well, I should hope not, if she's a sample. 

The idea of any woman standing on a soap box in the public street and 
talking to a lot of men — disgraceful ! That's what I call it. I say she's not fit 
to associate with respectable women. 

Say, I'm going to have my picture in the paper, ain't I. Don't you think 
this dress will look good in a picture? 

How does my hair look, Judge. 

Where's the photographer? 

BLATHER — Well, of course, Mrs. Callender, we may not be able to use 
the picture just at present. We are getting information that may be useful 
to us in the future. Now about this man Wells, do you know anything against 
him? 

MRS. CALLENDER— Well, I should say I do! Why, that man ran 
away and left a wife and five children down in California. There was nothing 
in the house to eat and the rent not paid. Wasn't that a shame? And now 
he's got another wife here, and they say he gets drunk and beats her up some- 
thing shameful. And I heard that he killed a man back East and had to skip 
out from there because the police was after him. 

Eight 



AND HIS FRIENDS 

BLATHER — You have often heard him say, have you not, that the Amer- 
ican flag was a dirty rag? 

MRS. CALLENDER — Oh, I have heard him say that hundreds of times! 

BLATHER — Now would you be able to swear in court, Mrs. Callender, 
just where you heard him say that? 

MRS. CALLEXDER — I should say I could! Why he said it everywhere. 
Every time I'd meet him he'd start to tell me how the flag was no good. 

BLATHER — Did he say it in a public meeting? 

MRS. CALLEXDER— Well, I should say he did! That's about all he 
would say when he made a speech. Just "Down with the flag," and "It's a 
dirty rag." That's all he would say. 

BLATHER — This is Mr. Xordsk, an employe of this paper, who is going 
to unmask these dynamiters. 

Judge, I wish you would explain to me the principles of your political 
belief, so I may be able to distinguish between your true Socialism and the doc- 
trines of these dynamic anarchists who call themselves Socialists. 

JUDGE WIXSLOW {grandiloquently') — Colonel, I believe in the gre-at 
principles that underlie all humanity, deriving their impulse from the springs 
of pr-r-o-gress that lie pr-r-egnant with purpose in the hearts of the high and 
the low. 

I believe in the principles of the immortal A-a-a-braham Lincoln, and the 
gr-r-a-n-d old Populist Party. 

Into the teeth of the vested interests of this g-r-e-a-t nation — those inter- 
ests that cr-r-r-ush beneath the gr-r-inding heel of monopoly the rights and 
liberties of a free people, I hurl the words of that immortal champion of the 
rights of the common people, the Hon. John E. Humphries — I say with him 
in thunder tones, "Shall the people rule?" 

MRS. CALLEXDER— Oh, Colonel, ain't the Judge just grand? 

BLATHER — Judge, that kind of Socialism is all right; I have no objec- 
tions to it whatever. You are a credit to the community. 

But these so-called Socialists that are talking about revolution are a menace, 
sir, to the institutions and the flag of this country. 

MRS. CALLEXDER (examining picture on the rcall) — What is this pic- 
ture of, Colonel? 

BLATHER — That, Madam, is a picture of the Blather chimes, presented 
to the University of Washington, by the Blather family. 

MRS. CALLEXDER — I think it was lovely of you to do that. 

BLATHER — Yes, it was a princely gift. The chimes cost $12,000 at the 
factory; the freight cost $325.00, drayage $63.00, installing them $286.00, in- 
stillation ceremony $205.00. The preacher who delivered the invocation was 
paid $10.00, making a grand total of $12,889.00. But the Blather family 
never spares expense. 

MRS. CALLEXDER — And after you did all that, some horrid students 
went and protested, didn't they? 

BLATHER — Oh, there were only fifty-one of them and they were all 
dynamic Socialists. The president of the university suppressed them and their 
guttersnipe paper. I went to see the Board of Regents about the matter, and 
thev raised Cain. 



Ni 



ine 



THE COLONEL 

JUDGE WINSLOW— Well, Kane deserved a raise. The president is a 
very valuable man to restrain the anarchistic tendencies of the modern univer- 
sity student. 

MRS. CALLENDER— Oh, I think he's perfectly noble— so dignified in 
that beautiful Prince Albert coat (striking attitude). 

JUDGE WINSLOW — All of the students and others who protested 
against the chimes were anarchists, I. W. W.'s, syndicalists, sabotagers and 
direct actionists. From time to time I have expressed in the columns of the 
Crimes my opinion of those people, and by the eternal, I will continue to do so 
until I drop in my tracks. When 3 r ou and I sat on the Board of Regents, 
Colonel, there were no such disgraceful occurrences. 

MRS. CALLENDER— T heard they held a big protest meeting in Dream- 
land Pavilion with three or four thousand people there. 

BLATHER — All those people came, Madam, simply to show their con- 
tempt for the Socialists. 

MRS. CALLENDER (looking at a picture on Col. Blather's desk) — Oh, 
who is this fine looking man ? 

BLATHER— That is Mr. Wappenstein, the best chief of police Seattle 
ever had. 

AIRS. CALLENDER— He hated the Socialists, too, didn't he, Colonel 
Blather ? 

BLATHER — Yes, he used to put them in jail, where they ought to be. I 
refer, Judge, of course, to the dynamic Socialists. 

MRS. CALLENDER— Where is Mr. Wappenstein now? 

BLATHER — Lie — well — I — the fact is — he doesn't live her? any more. 
No — he — he — moved. 

(Enter C. B. Blather.) 

C. B. BLATHER — Excuse me, Colonel, but Judge Humpty Dumpty has 
arrived and we are ready to proceed with the flag raising. 

BLATHER— Clarence, ask Judge Humpty Dumpty to step in and meet 
my friends. (Exit C. B. B.) Judge Humpty Dumpty, who loves the flag near- 
ly as much as the Blather family, will make the address, and then we will fling 
the folds of dear Old Glory to the breeze. 

MRS. CALLENDER— Oh. won't that be patriotic? 

(Enter Judge Humpty Dumpty and C. B. Blather. C. B. Blather intro- 
duces Judge Humpty Dumpty as "the fearless justice of the Superior Court." 
The Judge's bulging frock coat is completely covered with emblems of many 
secret orders.) 

COL. BLATHER (pointing to an election campaign button among the 
judge's collection) — I don't seem to recognize that emblem, Judge. What 
order is that? 

JUDGE HLTMPTY DUMPTY— Why, that is one that I wear to please 
the Socialists. At the last election I needed votes very badly, Colonel, and so 
I gave ten dollars to the Socialist campaign fund. Now they all think that 
I am one of them. 

I am very broad-minde6J, Colonel. I give to all political parties, and 
believe in them all in a general way. 

Ten 



AND HIS FRIENDS 

BLATHER — Your liberality, Judge, is second only to your patriotism. 
I believe you love the flag almost as much as I do. 

JUDGE H. D. — No, Colonel, you love it almost as much as I do. 

BLATHER — No, Judge, I am sure I love it more. 

JUDGE H. D. — Xo, Colonel, I know I love it more. I was raised in 
Indiana where the people are more patriotic than they are here.' The state of 
Indiana has produced a fine type of citizens. It was there that I learned the 
principles which I have expressed in the words "Shall the people rule?" 

(The sound of exploding bombs are heard.) 

BLATHER — Come, the hour for the flag-raising has arrived! Let us 
now place the folds of Old Glory over the Seattle Crimes. 

(All inarch off stage as band behind scenes plays "The Star Spangled 
Banner." ) 

(Drop curtain falls, to represent passage of several hours. Rises imme- 
diately, showing Blather's office late in evening of same day. Blather asleep, 
in chair, has a Socialist nightmare. Socialists returning from their street meet- 
ing are seen passing window with their banners. They sing, 
"The people's flaa of deepest red 
Has shrouded oft our martyred dead." 

Blather rouses in paroxysm of rage, seizes typewriter and hurls it in direc- 
tion of singers.) 

CURTAIN 



ACT II. 

Scene — Street corner in front of Crimes Building. (Curtain rises on 
group of newsboys shooting craps. Two of them fight. One of them wins all 
the money and the game stops.) 

FIRST NEWSBOY— I didn't make nothin at all on the Crimes tonight. 
Didn't get any papers at all till 6 o'clock. All the first lot was piled back in 
the basement and they wouldn't let us kids have none of them. 

SECOND NEWSBOY — Aw, tell us somethin' we don't know. I know 
why thev done it, too. 

ALL THE BOY STOGETHER— Why? 

SECOND NEWSBOY — This is the night the grand jury was goin' to 
report. Well, the Crimes swiped the report an' was goin' to scoop all the 
other papers, but the guy what runs the Sun he puts the grand jury wise and 
the Crimes had to back up. Say, they lost about 20,000 papers. 

THIRD NEWSBOY — Yes, an'' a fellah told me he'd give me twenty- 
five dollars for just one paper. I climbed down the air shaft to get one, but 
a guy with a monkeywrench druv me back. Twenty-five dollars! Hully gee! 

FIRST NEWSBOY — Aw, nobody ain't got that much money. 

(Enter Socialist street speahers, with banner and stand.) 

Eleven 



THE COLONEL 

SECOND NEWSBOY— Gee, fellers, look who's here! 
{Chairman of meeting announces Kate Sadler as the first speaker.) 

KATE SADLER — Comrades and friends, this is a meeting held by the 
Socialist Party in the interest of the working class, and that class only. If there 
are any in this crowd who are not of the exploited workers, then I do not ex- 
pect your sympathy or approval. 

I speak for the victims of the capitalist system, of which I am one. You 
men and women who toil for the enrichment of a favored class, you who sow 
for others to reap, you whose strength and skill of hand and brain make all 
the useful and beautiful things that we call wealth — it is to you that I appeal. 
Men, you live in a marvelous age. You have seen the forces of nature 
chained to do the bidding of man. In the place of the old, slow methods, and 
the old simple tools, there has come the great complex machine, producing 
wealth with tireless energy, and in such quantity that no man or woman or 
child in all the world need want for the comforts of life. 

The workers that toil in mill and mine and factory have done this. It is 
out of their blood and sweat and tears that this thing that we call civilization 
has come, and now they find themselves chained to the machine that they have 
made. 

The class that own the machinery of production are the masters of your 
lives. The man that owns your job owns you. {A Voice — Aw, what you 
givin' us? This is a free country.) Yes, you are free to starve, or to work 
upon the terms set by your employer. You take your job for the price of a 
poor living. Some other man is waiting for it if you demand more. No, 
friends, you cannot be free until you own your job. 

The only way that you can ever own your job, is to own it collectively. 
But do not think for a moment that the class which is riding on your 
necks will ever get off because of their love for you. Oh no, if you want 
them off, you must stand erect and throw them off. 

I cannot do that alone. You cannot do it alone. There is one road to 
power. Its name is Solidarity. Get into the political party of your class. 
Stick to your union, and work through it for the one big union of militant 
workers that shall shake the world with its power. 

You are many. They are few. When you unite in the shop and at the 
ballot box, you can do anything you want. 

For the sake of the women of my class, the work-worn mothers of the 
race, I plead tonight. For the sake of the thousands of girls that capitalism 
sells in its markets of shame — for the sake of the tender children whose lives 
are coined into dollars that drip blood — we carry on our work of agitation and 
organization. 

How the comrades of the past and present have agitated! They have 
taken the surface, prepared the ground and made it fertile, and agitation must 
go on until the human minds all around us have been prepared for seed. 

Education has gone on apace. It is manifesting itself in all layers of 
society until society is being pinned down to an acknowledgment of the truth 
Marx taught, that "Labor produces all wealth, and that Labor does not get 
its product." 

Twelve 



AND HIS FRIENDS 

That does not mean that Labor will get its product. Not at all. If a 
thing is worth having it is worth going after. There is no one going to send 
up a clarion call to Labor that at such and such an hour Labor can have full 
control of its product. Xo. Labor must be ready to make its demands and 
be able to back them up, and it is here that organization comes in, here that 
we must collectively have a medium through which to make our collective de- 
mands and through which we will be able to hold that which we must have in 
order to live. 

Economic pressure is forcing us together. We must adhere. Stick. 
Unite and perfect this mechanism. It is our strength and will spell progress 
for us as it has spelled it for the capitalist class of our day. 

Man does not lend himself very readily to organization, but the changing 
economic conditions are drawing men and women closer together, uniting them 
through the bands of common interest, self-preservation and desire to survive 
with less of this struggle for simply the meager things of life. 

To bring about this action — class action — organization, is the keynote. 
Through it lies the way to success. Let us then willingly submerge ourselves 
for the good of the whole, bringing hands and hearts and heads to this great- 
est of all service — where it is each for all and all for each. 
Listen to the cry of the workers — 

I have broken my hands on your granite, 

I have broken my strength on your steel, 
I have sweated through years for your pleasure 

I have worked like a slave for your weal, 
And what is the wage you have paid me? 

You masters and drivers of men — 
Enough so I come in my hunger 
To beg for more labor again? 
Friends, you have nothing but your chains to lose, you have a world to 
gain. 

{Joseph Jarvis is now announced as the second speaker. He speaks only 
a few minutes when the meeting is broken up by a rush of newsboys, shouting, 
"Extry! Extry! Grand Jury indicts editor of Crimes for libelling Socialist.") 

CURTAIN, 



Thirteen 



THE COLONEL 
ACT III. 

(Curtain rises on courtroom of Judge Humpty Dumpty, with colored jan- 
itor dusting off the judge's desk. He pauses in his whistling and looks at cal- 
endar.) 

JANITOR — x\h wonduh what's on the calendah today. State vs. A. J^ 
Blatheh and C. B. Blatheh. Oh! That's the case agin them Socialists. 
Swell chance them Socialists have got in this yeah cawt. 
Well, ah reckon ah betteh bring in a whole armload o' law books. The 
judge sure am a'goin' to need a lot o' law. 

(He brings in a big pile of books. Spectators enter and ask if this is 
where the Blather trial takes place. Prosecutor and jurors come in, then tfie 
Blathers with their attorney. Enter Judge H. D.) 

BAILIFF- — Hear ye, Hear ye, Hear ye: The Honorable the Superior 
Court of Washington for King County, Dept- No. 5, is now in session, Judge 
Humpty Dumpty presiding. 

JUDGE— The Clerk will read the docket. 

CLERK — State versus A. J. and C. B. Blather, State versus James M. 
Sheldon, Miller versus Miller, Starbuck versus Starbuck, Ross versus Ross, 
State versus R. C. Densmore, State versus Helen Chapman. That's all, your 
honor. 

JUDGE — Are there any exparte matters to come before this Court? 
AN ATTORNEY — If it please the Court I have here a petition praying 
the Court to strike from the report of the last grand jury all criticism of county 
commissioners. 

JUDGE HUMPTY DUMPTY— The Court will grant the petition. A 
county commissioner is only a little lower than a judge. Next thing we know, 
these grand juries will be finding fault with the judges. The clerk will tear 
those pages out of the report. 

THE ATTORNEY— If it please the Court, I have another petition which 
relates to the report of the Corliss grand jury which made a base attack on some 
of our leading citizens because of their connection with a certain club. 

The names of these reputable citizens who now petition you to clear their 
honorable names, are as follows: 

Alden J. Blather, Ludovic and Berryman, Gid Tupper, Paddy the Pig 
and Albert the Whale. 

JUDGE — The clerk will destroy that grand jury report entirely. It was 
an insult to decent people. 

ANOTHER ATTORNEY— If it please the Court, here are a few in- 
junctions, two hundred and seventeen in all. 

(Judge begins to sign them, but soon tires, and hands them over to clerk, 
who goes to work with rubber stamp. This disturbs the Court, who calls the 
janitor and directs him to finish the job.) 
JUDGE— Call the first case. 

CLERK— State versus A. J. and C. B. Blathers. 

JUDGE — I see the defendants are here. Are you ready to proceed, Mr. 
Walters ? 

Fourteen 



AND HIS FRIENDS 

ATTORNEY WALTERS— We are ready, your honor. 

JUDGE — Is the prosecution ready? 

PEELE — Yes, your honor. 

JUDGE — The Clerk will proceed to impanel a jury. 

(Clerk draws names and jurors take their places.} 

JUDGE — Go ahead with your examination of jurors. 

PEELE (to first juror, a woman) — What, is your name? Are you married, 
or single? What is your husband's name and occupation? Is he now or has 
he at am r time been employed by the Seattle Crimes, or either of the defendants ? 
Do you know either of the defendants ? Have you any relatives or friends who 
are or have been employed by the defendants ? Do you know Mr. Walters, the 
attorney for the defendant? Did your husband ever run a newspaper or work 
for one? Do you believe in the enforcement of all the laws of this state, includ- 
ing the law against libel? Do you know anything that would prevent you from 
giving a fair and impartial verdict in this case? (Repeats about same to each.) 
Pass for cause. 

WALTERS — Do you know any one connected with the prosecuting attor- 
ney's office? Do you believe in our form of government? You respect the flag- 
do you not? You don't belong to the Socialist Party, do you? Xor to any or- 
ganization that is trying to tear down the government of this country? Have 
you any relatives or friends in the Socialist Party? Or in the I. W. W.'s? Or 
in any similar organization ? Have you read about this case ? Have you any 
fixed opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the defendants ? If you were on 
trial in the place of this defendant would you be willing to have your case tried 
by a juror who felt toward you as you now feel toward this defendant? Pass, 
for cause. (Similar questions to each juror.) 

JUDGE — Do you accept the jury, gentlemen? 

ATTORNEYS— Yes, your honor. 

(Jury is sworn.) 

JUDGE — Proceed, Mr. Peele. (Peele reads indictment.) 

IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON FOR: 

KING COUNTY. 



STATE OF WASHINGTON, 

Plaintiff. 
vs. 

ALDEN J. BLATHER and C. B. 
BLATHER, 

Defendants. 



INDICTMENT. 

No. 6597. 



ALDEN J. Blather and C. B. Blather, and each of them, are accused by 
the Grand Jury of the County of King, State of Washington, by this indict- 
ment of publishing a libel, that is to say, of maliciously publishing certain print- 
ed matter of and concerning one Joseph Jarvis which tended to expose him to 
hatred, contempt, ridicule and obliquy, and to deprive him of the benefit of pub- 
lic confidence and social intercourse, and to injure him in his business, com- 
mitted as follows : 

Fifteen 



THE COLONEL 

They, said Alden J. Blather and C. B. Blather, and each of them, upon the 
4th day of October, A. D. 1912, in the County of King, State of Washington, 
said Alden J. Blather and C. B. Blather being then and there Editor in Chief 
and Managing Editor, respectively of the Seattle Daily Crimes, a newspaper 
published in the City of Seattle, County of King, State of Washington, of gen- 
eral circulation in said city, county and state, did then and there maliciously 
publish in said Seattle Daily Crimes, the following printed words: 

"HULET WELLS' FRIEND MISSING WITH $1,000 OF SOCIALIST 

CHANGE. 

With approximately $1,000 in his pocket — the proceeds of the Eugene V. 
Debs meeting held in this city — Joseph Jarvis, a rabid Hulet M. Wells fol- 
lower and chairman of the old King County Socialist committee, has disappeared 
from Seattle and is now believed by Socialists to be on his way back to England. 

Whether he absconded, 'flew the coop,' or just naturally embezzled the 
money is a source of great wonderment, as the Wells faction is lamenting the 
loss of the $1,000, upon which they had counted mightily for various reasons. 

Debs' tour across the country was arranged by the National Socialist com- 
mittee, each state committee having charge of the meetings within its own ter- 
ritory. The old state executive committee of Washington, with headquarters at 
Everett, is controlled by the Wells faction, and it placed Jarvis in full charge 
of the Seattle meeting. Jarvis was member of the famous Fifth Ward Local 
and chairman of the King County committee. 

An admission fee of twenty-five cents was charged ; and figuring on a basis 
of 4,000 persons present about $1,000 was received. Shortly afterward the 
Victor Berger meeting came up, and the committee began looking for Jarvis to 
take full charge of that, but Jarvis could not be found. 

At first it was thought that possibly he had left the city for a short time, 
but as the days wore away and Jarvis failed to return, the last hopes were 
abandoned and the Wells crowd are reported to admit that it will never see him 
or the money again." 

Dated at Seattle, in the County aforesaid the 17th dav of June, 1913. 

JOHN F. MURPHY, 
Prosecuting Attorney of King County. 
A True Bill: 

A. R. RUTHERFORD, 

Foreman of the Grand Jury of King County. 

PEELE — If it please the Court, I will make an opening statement to the 
jury. Ladies and gentlemen, this is an action for criminal libel brought by 
the state against the defendants A. J. and C. B. Blather, father and son. The 
state will show by its evidence that A. J. Blather is editor in chief and C. B. 
Blather the managing editor of a daily newspaper called the Seattle Crimes. 

We will show further that on the 4th day of October last that this paper 
the Seattle Crimes published a story purporting to be true that one Joseph 
Jarvis, a Socialist, had embezzled one thousand dollars of the proceeds of a 
meeting held by E. V. Debs, funds belonging to the Socialist Party, and had 
left for England. 

Sixteen 



AND HIS FRIENDS 

We will show by the evidence that the publication was wholly false and 
malicious. That Jarvis, the person referred to. had not stolen that money or 
any money ; that he was living in the city at his usual residence ; that he had 
not handled any of the funds of the Debs meeting, and that none of these funds 
were stolen by any one. We will show by the evidence that this attack on 
Jarvis was only one of a series of malicious attacks made by these defendants 
on various members of the Socialist Party. Not for the purpose of giving legit- 
imate news to the public but to vent malice of the defendants toward the So- 
cialists. 

We will show by the evidence that Jarvis was continuously in this city for 
weeks before this article was published, and that on the day this article was 
published had only left the city for a few hours going as far as Everett and 
returning the same day. That even on that day his wife could have been found 
at their usual residence., the officials of the Socialist Party could have been 
found at the headquarters of the party, and could have answered any inquiries 
as to his whereabouts. 

These are the facts which the state will prove, and on them we will ask 
a verdict of guilty. 

MR. WALTERS — May it please your honor. I would like to make the 
statement for the defense at this time. 

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the evidence for the defense in this 
case will show that this prosecution is inspired by a man named Hulet M. Wells. 

MR. PEELE — If it please the court, we object to that for the reason 
that counsel has no right to go behind the indictment. These defendants were 
indicted by the Grand Jury of King County, and it is not for counsel to attack 
the character of witnesses examined before that jury. 

JUDGE — Objection overruled! 

MR. WALTERS— The evidence for the defense will show that Hulet M. 
Wells is a Socialist, belonging to one wing of the Socialist party — the revolu- 
tionary, the rabid wing — if there is any difference in them, and that he ap- 
peared before the grand jury in an effort to have this indictment returned. 
The evidence will show that it was through his sole evidence that they returned 
the indictment, and he was the sole witness examined before the grand jury. 

Now the evidence will show, ladies and gentlemen, that this Hulet M. 
Wells, at a meeting some time ago, referred to the flag of our country as a 
"dirty rag" and denounced our form of government in scathing terms. 

MR. PEELE-r-Your Honor, we must object to these remarks of counsel 
for the further reason that the man he refers to is one of the State's witnesses. 
We object to counsel seeking to prjudice the minds of the jury in regard to 
a matter that cannot be shown in the evidence. 

JUDGE — Objection overruled. 

The Crimes printed that fact and criticised his attitude and statement that 
our flag was a dirty rag, and because the Crimes did he commenced a suit, as 
the evidence will show, for damages. This suit has been thrown out of court 
as having no merit in it. 

Then chagrined at the outcome of this case, and by reason of the fact 
that he was not able successfully to prosecute the case because of what he had 
done, and having toward the publishers of the Crimes an intense feeling of 

Seventeen 



THE COLONEL 

hatred, as well as hatred toward our form of government and the flag, he went 
before the grand jury and succeeded — I do not know how — but he succeeded 
upon his uncorroborated evidence in having this indictment returned. 

Now, the evidence will show, ladies and gentlemen, that there was nothing 
published about a man by the name of Jarvis that was false. It was just 
charged that this article was published maliciously. That is all that they say — 
that the Crimes maliciously published a certain article with the heading, 'Hulet 
M. Wells' Friend Missing With $1,000 of Socialist Change. With "approxi- 
mately $1,000 in his pocket, the proceeds of the Eugene V. Debs meeting held 
in this city, Joseph Jarvis, Hulet M. Wells' follower' — this man that had called 
the flag of his country a "dirty rag" — has disappeared from Seattle and is now 
believed by the Socialists to be on his way back to England.' ' 

PEELE — Your honor, counsel is arguing as to the sufficiency of the indict- 
ment. We object to that as being a question not to be argued to the jury. 

JUDGE — Objection overruled. 

MR. WALTE RS — There is nothing in this article which charges this man 
with having taken money. The statement is simply that such was reported. 
The man left this communhy and it was reported that he had left with $1,000 
of Socialist money in his pocket. 

And because the Crimes in good faith published that article and published 
it on reliable information as rumored and after an investigation made by the 
publishers of the paper as to the authenticity of the report which had been 
brought to them relative to this man Jarvis, the publishers of this paper print- 
ed this article just as they would print a news article concerning any of us 
after an investigation, in good faith, believing it to be true. 

Now the evidence will show that afterwards, complaint was made to Mr. 
C. B. Blather, managing editor of the Crimes, relative to this article. And 
showing the absolute good faith of the publishers of this paper, and as showing 
thta they had no malice but were acting fairly and impartially, the complain- 
ants were told that if they desired a contradiction of this article it would be pub- 
lished and if they would make a contradiction over their own signatures, the 
Crimes would give publicity to it. That was all there was to it. 

"The Crimes is a paper that publishes the news, and when this piece of 
news came to it, these editors and publishers, after an investigation and be- 
lieving that the report that was brought to them was a true report, published 
it just as they would publish any news item, and because they did publish it 
they are haled into court under this indictment at the behest of this man 
Wells, who has sued them for damages and whose suit has been thrown out of 
court — and at the behest of a man who has stood before an American audience 
and referred to our flag as a 'dirt}?- rag.' 

Now these are the facts in the case, ladies and gentlemen, and when we 
disclose them to you as facts, we will ask at your hands a prompt verdict of 
acquittal. 

{The State calls Joseph Blather, who identifies a copy of the Crimes con- 
taining the article charged as libellous. Joseph Blather is excused. The State 
calls Joseph Jarvis.) 

MR. PEELE — Mr. Jarvis, how long have you lived in Seattle? 

JARVIS — About three years? 

Eighteen 



AND HIS FRIENDS 

MR. PEELE — Do you belong to the Socialist Party? 

JAR VIS — Yes, sir. 

MR. PEELE— Which Socialist Party? 

JAR VIS — The one which is affiliated with the National Socialist Party. 

MR. PEELE — Is that the one to which Judge Winslow belongs? 

JAR VIS — Xo, he belongs to the Bull Moose Socialists. 

MR. PEELE — Do you remember reading in the Seattle Crimes last Octo- 
ber an article which charged you with stealing one thousand dollars ? 

JARVIS— I do. 

MR. PEELE — Where were you then? 

JARVIS — I was in Everett on that particular afternoon. 

MR. PEELE — Had you moved from this city? 

JARVIS — Xo. I had just gone to Everett on business for a few hours, 
ieturning the same day. 

MR. PEELE — You had not changed your Seattle residence? 

JARVIS — Xo. I have been living at the same place for over a year. 

MR, PEELE— That is all. 

The State rests. 

(The testimony of witnesses for defense is taken from the record of the 
Court stenographer.) 

A. J. Blather, one of the defendants, was duly sworn as a witness and 
testified as follows: 

BY MR. WALTERS: 

Q. Your name is Alden J. Blather? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. And you are editor in chief of the Seattle Times of this city? 

A. I am. 

Q. Colonel, I wish you would state the circumstances under which the 
article here in question was published by your paper. 

MR. PEELE — If the Court please, that is objected to at this time. 

THE COURT (after argument) — Objection overruled. 

MR. WALTERS — I asked him to state what the circumstances were of 
the publication. 

Q. Colonel, I wish you would state the circumstances under which the 
article here in question was published by your paper. 

A. I think it was on the morning of the day of publication, and that you 
fix, I believe as October 4th, that a reporter of the Crimes came in and told me 
that it was current rumor on the streets that Jarvis, who had spoken at the 
Dreamland Rink a few nights before, or a few days before, and who had been 
the treasurer of the meeting, receiving approximately one thousand dollars, 
according to the estimate, had disappeared, had left town and taken the money 
with him, according to the rumor. I promptly directed the young man to go 
to Judge Richard Winslow, who, it is well known, is the leader of at least one 
faction of Socialism. He did so and reported back that Judge Winslow said 
that the rumor was current, that he had heard it, but knew nothing as to the 
exact facts. Whereupon I directed the reporter to write the story and turn it in 
to the City Editor. He did so and it was published. 

Q. Now, you did not know Mr. Jarvis ? 

Nineteen 



THE COLONEL 

A. No, sir. 

Q. You had no feeling of malice toward him? 

A. I had never heard of him before. 

Q. And in making the publication or causing this article to be published 
you were acting simply in line with youv duty as an editor and publisher of your 
paper? You were giving the news to the people? 

MR. PEELE — J object to that as calling for a conclusion of the witness. 

THE COURT (after argument) — Objection overruled. 

A. I regarded the matter as a public matter of a good deal of moment, 
by reason of the large meeting that had been held in the Dreamland Rink, re- 
ported to be more than four thousand, in which certain doctrines in which I do 
not believe were enunciated and preached; that the party who was in charge 
who was reported as being a stranger at the same time, and I felt that if he 
came here a stranger and taking charge of a meeting of that kind had received 
that amount of money and had disappeared, that it was a matter of a good deal 
of moment to the public. 

MR. WALTERS: I think that is ail. 

BY MR. PEELE— 

Q. Colonel, no one told you this story was true before you published it? 

A. No, sir; it was published on rumor. 

Q. Who was this reporter who first reported to you? 

A. A young man whom we employed in the reportorial office by the name 
of Nordsk, and who was looking up some testimony in another case. 

Q. Is he here now? 

A. He is on the paper now, yes. 

Q. And he said to you, the first you heard of this that it was currently 
rumored on the streets that Jarvis had disappeared with one thousand dollars of 
the Debs money? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. You then, as I understand you, directed him to go and see Judge 
Winslow ? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Judge Winslow belonging to one faction of the party and Jarvis be- 
longing to another faction of the Socialist Party, as you understood it? 

A. Yes and no, both. Judge Winslow always claimed to belong to the 
original Socialist Party that believes in evolution by education and not by direct 
movement, dynamic power or other revolutionary means. 

Q. I just asked you this, Colonel: If they did not belong to different 
factions at that time? 

A. But I want to tell you that Judge Winslow says those fellows are 
not Socialists, they are anarchists ; therefore there could not be two factions. 

Q. You regard that as a fair answer to my question, do you? 

A. I tried to answer it fairly. 

Q. I simply asked you if they did not belong to different factions. 

A. If there is not but one, how could they belong to two? 

Q. Judge Winslow's faction had nothing to do with the management or 
control of the Debs meeting, did they, or the control of this money that was 
raised ? 

Twenty 



AND HIS FRIENDS 

A. From Judge Winslow's statement, the Socialist party had nothing to 
do with it at all. 

Q. I am asking you if Winslow or his faction or his crowd was in charge 
of the Debs meeting from which this money was raised? 

A. I apprehend not. 

Q. You understood at the time that they had nothing to do with the meet- 
ing of this crowd? 

A. I think SO; yes. 

Q. You knew that at the time, and yet you did not undertake to investi- 
gate it with the Hulet M. Wells or Jarvis crowd, did you, to see whether it was 
true or not? 

A. Certainly not. 

Q. Yet you knew at the time that they were the people who had the ruiff^ 
ning of the Debs meeting, collected the money and handled the money? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. And that they would be the people that would know about Jarvis ? 

A. Yes ; but I would not believe what they would say. 

Q. And you made no effort to ask them whether Jarvis had embezzled 
the money or not? 

A. I sent to a man in whom I had confidence. 

Q. But to a man that had nothing to do with the money or the meeting? 

A. He was the head of the Socialists. 

Q. But had nothing to do with the money or that meeting? 

A. Not to my own knowledge, no. 

Q. And you understand at that time he had not? 

A. I understand at the time that he was in the meeting but did not have 
charge of it. 

Q. Nor his crowd did not handle the money. 

A. I do not know what you mean by his crowd, Mr. Peele. 

Q. I mean the faction he belongs to. You know what a faction of a party 
is, don't you? 

A. I understand he belongs to the original Socialist party. 

Q. You understand these other people claim to be Socialists, too, do you? 

A. I never knew it before until Jarvis had said so. 

Q. You never heard that Hulet M. Wells claimed to be a Socialist? 

A. Of the dynamic order. 

Q. That he claimed to be a Socialist? 

A. I place him as an anarchist. 

Q. I did not ask you what you placed him. 

A. I am telling you my reasons for not believing in two factions. 

Q. You certainly understand my question. 

A. And I think you understand my answer, and that is what annoys you. 

Q. And he ran for Mayor on the Socialist ticket. 

A. On the ticket called Socialist. 

Q. And you understand he claims to be a Socialist? 

A. Of a certain order. 

Q. He claims to be of a certain order? 

A. Yes, he published this proclamation in every paper. 

Twenty-one 



THE COLONEL 

Q. Well, I did not ask about that. 

A. Well, I answered it. 

Q. This reporter then wrote this article after you directed him to write it ? 

A. Yes ; he reported it to the city editor. I do not know who wrote it. 

Q. Didn't you find out afterwards that this article was not true? 

A. I did not. 

Q. Didn't Mr. Jarvis come to see you about it, or some of your people in 
the office there, immediately after its publication? 

A. Do you want me to tell you what I heard? 

Q. No. But I just asked you didn't you hear that he came in to see them? 

A. I want to answer the whole question to answer it properly. 

THE COURT — Colonel, just answer the question. 
* Q. (Mr. Peele) You heard that he came to see about that article soon 
after it was published, did you not? 

A. I heard several weeks afterwards, that he did. 

Q. And that he denied it was true ; you heard that, too, did you not ? 

A. I did not hear that he denied the the truth of it. He did not use those 
words. 

Q. Do you know now whether he embezzled that money of the Debs meet- 
ing or not? 

A. I do not. 

Q. Have you ever made any effort to find out? 

A. Nothing more than I have told you. 

Q. That is all you have ever done about it? 

A. Yes. 

Q. And you felt yourself justified on that rumor for charging a man 
with embezzling a thousand dollars? 

MR. WALTERS — I object to that. There is no charge to that effect. 

THE WITNESS — Do you want me to argue it with you? 

Q. (Mr. Peele) You felt yourself justified? 

A. We would not have published the article if we had not believed it to 
be true. 

Q. And you felt you were justified in believing it on that rumor? 
A. On what Judge Winslow said and the rumor. 

THE COURT — Mr. Peele, if you provoke the witness into an argument 
you make it very unpleasant. 

MR. PEELE — I do not want to interrupt the witness, your honor, so long 
as he is answering the question. 

THE WITNESS— I would like to tell you what I heard about Jarvis. 

MR. PEELE — I do not care to have any hearsay put into this law suit. 

THE WITNESS— Then you do not care about hearing the facts? 

Q. (Mr. Peele) But Judge Winslow told you. 

A. He told the reporter. 

Q. He told the reporter, as you understand, that he knew nothing about 
the facts? 

A. Yes ; that the rumor was current, but lie knew nothing about the facts 
personally. 

Q. You say you did not know Jarvis at that time? 

Twenty-two 



AND HIS FRIENDS 

A. I did not know him and never saw him before today. 

MR. PEELE— That is all. 

REDIRECT EXAMINATION. 

BY MR. WALTERS — Colonel, you said you would like to explain your 
answer there as to what you have heard; I wish you would. 

A. Subsequently, I do not remember whether it was a week or ten days 
after the publication. 

MR. PEELE — That is after the publication? 

MR. WALTERS— Yes, after the publication. 

MR. PEELE — Then that is objected to. 

THE COURT — I do not think that would be proper, after the publication. 

MR. WALTERS — Your honor, Mr. Peele was asking Col. Blather what 
he had heard and the Colonel wanted to state what he had heard but was not 
permitted to. 

MR. PEELE — You mean about Jarvis going to the office? 

MR. WALTERS— Yes. 

MR. PEELE — Oh, there is no objection, if that is what it is. 

A. (continuing) Within a week or ten days I learned from my son, C. 
B. Blather that Jarvis did come to the office immediately after the publication 
and stated to the city editor, or the reporter, or both, that the article was not 
true, whereupon he was invited to be interviewed and give us the facts and they 
would publish it ; and if the statement convinced us that it was true, the retrac- 
tion would be made. Mr. Jarvis responded: "It is not retraction I want; it 
is your money, and I am going into court." 

Q. And he did, did he not? 

A. He did. 

Q. He sued you? 

A. Yes; and he has been thrown out of court four times. 

MR. WALTERS— That is all. 

(Witness excused.) 

RICHARD WINSLOW— 

(A witness called bi/ and on behalf of the defendants, was first duly sworn 
and testified as follows:) 

MR. WALTERS— 

Q. What is your name? 

A. Richard Winslow. 

Q. You are a practicing attorney at this bar? 

A. I have been, but I have not been practicing for several years. 

Q. You are a member of the Seattle School Board? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Do you recall the occasion of a reporter from the Crimes coining to see 
you relative to a rumor affecting one Joseph Jarvis? 

A. I do; yes. 

Q. He called on you, Judge, with a view to ascertaining whether there was 
such a rumor and whether it was rumored that Mr. Jarvis had left the city 
with money from the Debs meeting? 

A. He asked me if I heard such a rumor. 

Q. And had you heard such a rumor? 

Twenty- three 



THE COLONEL 

A. I had., sir. 

Q. And that was reported or rumored here in this city, was it? 

A. I had heard it; yes. 

Q. And you so told this reporter? 

A. I told him I had heard it but knew nothing about it. 

Q. Nothing about it personally? 

A. That I was not in contact with those people. 

Q. Now, you belong to the Socialist Party, do you? 

A. I did then; yes. 

Q. And did Jarvis and Wells belong to the party of the different factions 
of the party? 

A. I suppose there was two factions. 

Q. They did not belong. 

A. (continuing) I was not in association with them all, or with those 
people. I know more about them by rumors than by contact. Once in a while 
I would pass on the street where I heard a man talk 

MR. PEELE — I think that answers the question. 

Q. (Mr. Walters) Judge, the reporter came to you on the day before 
this article appeared, did he not? 

A. It was before I heard of the article. 

Q. On the morning of the day? 

A. I could not tell you. 

Q. Before you heard of the article? 

A. Before I heard of the article, yes. I do not know that I have ever 
read the article yet. 

Q. Were you at the meeting held in the Dreamland Rink that is referred 
to in this article? 

A. The Debs meeting? 

Q. Yes. 

A. No, sir, I was not. As much as I respect Eugene V. Debs, I would 
not attend the meeting. I wouldn't go across the street w T here those people w r ere. 

MR. PEELE — That answ r ers the question. 

CROSS-EXAMINATION. 

BY MR. PEELE— 

Q. You or your followers, or people — 

A. I have no followers that I am aware of, sir. 

Q. The people who work with you in the Socialist Party had no part in 
the management of the Debs meeting? 

A. No, sir, not that I know of. 

Q. In other words, your faction of the Socialist Party, if you will permit 
that expression, did not manage the Debs meeting, or handle any of the money 
— none of your class of Socialists? 

A. Not that I know anything about, sir. 

Q. You would have known it if they had been in charge of the meeting 
wouldn't you, Judge? 

A. I might not. I do not control or run the Socialist movement. 

Q. But you say you had heard this rumor. Nobody had told you that 
claimed to know T about it, had they, that he had skipped with the money? 

Twenty- four 



AND HIS FRIENDS 

A. I did not discuss it with anybody. 

Q. Well, you did not hear anybody say they knew that he had embezzled 
this money and absconded? 

A. No, sir; I never heard anything but a rumor that he had gone. 

Q. Yes. And you did not follow it up to see whether that rumor was 
true or not? 

A. No, sir. I wouldn't go across the street to find it out. 

Q. And all you said to this Crimes reporter was that you had heard the 
rumor that Jarvis had gone? 

A. Yes; and that I knew nothing about it myself. 

Q. And personally you knew nothing about the truth of it? 

A. Yes. 

MR. PEELE— That is all. 

(Witness excused.) 

(C. B. Blather, one of the defendants, teas duly sworn and testified as 
follows:) 

Q. Mr. Blather, I wish you would state what you know of the publication 
of this article that is here in question and the circumstances governing its pub- 
lication so far as you know. 

A. I remember the case as a news story and not by date at all. I was told 
by my subordinates that they had a story to the effect that Jarvis had gone far 
away with this money and that the story had been referred to the Colonel's desk. 
I was very busy with some other affairs, and I did not read the article myself 
until it was in the paper that night. 

The next day my subordinates reported to me that Jarvis had come into 
the office and claimed that he had not taken the money. I remember expressing 
myself that it was a pretty mess to get into when we were so sure that the story 
was correct — to have a man show up and claim that he had not taken anybody's 
money. I instructed my people to see that he was given a story exactly as 
thoroughly displayed as the original story. They later reported to me that 
Jarvis and the man that came in with him, to use the expression of the city 
editor, said "They will see us in hell first — what they want is our money." 

(Witness excused.) 

PEELE — Your honor the law puts the burden of proof upon the defend- 
ant to show that the article charged as libellous is in fact true. Now in this 
case your honor, the defense has not proved that the facts charged in this pub- 
lication were true. Nor have they made any effort to do so. They have in 
fact confessed that it was wholly false and was published without any real effort 
to establish its truth. Therefore we ask that your honor instruct the jury that 
if they find that the defendants failed to prove that the article was true and 
was published for good and justifiable ends or that they had reasonable grounds 
to believe it true, that the jury shall return a verdict of guilty. 

WALTERS — They have not charged that the publication was false, your 
honor. 

JUDGE — No; that's true. The indictment doesn't say anything about the 
article being false — just says it's malicious. Well, now, Colonel Blather says 
it wasn't malicious. He says he didn't know Jarvis, so how could he have had 
any malice against him? 

Twenty-five 



THE COLONEL 

PEELE — But, your honor, you can't assume that the facts are as stated by 
the defendant. We have witnesses to disprove his testimony at the proper time, 
but my contention at this time is that it is unnecessary for us to call those wit- 
nesses because the law puts the burden of proof on the defendant to show that 
the article was true. And they have failed to show it. 

JUDGE — The burden of proof is on the prosecution in any criminal case, 
Mr. Peelse. You have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the facts charged 
as constituting a crime are true. 

PEELE — Generally speaking, that is true, your honor, but in this state 
and most others the libel statute changes the prevailing rule as to burden of 
proof. 

. JUDGE — Well, now, Mr. Peele, I have plenty of law here that shows 
that the burden of proof is on the prosecution. Just listen to this (reading). 

PEELE — But, your honor is reading from the common law. We have a 
statute that governs that point in this state. 

JUDGE — Oh, I don't know. Here it says again (reading). 

There seems to be plenty of law against you, Mr. Peele. 

PEELE — But please, your honor, you're reading from the common law. 
We have a specific statute in this state and that is what governs. At common 
law the truth was no defense, so the burden of proof was on the prosecution to 
show malice, but statutes have changed all that. 

JUDGE-^Well, well, yes, that's right. I know all about the statute. I've 
read the statute. I've read all the laws of this state. I'm not just starting in 
this law business, Mr. Peele. Been at it for quite a while — quite a few years. 
I've seen libel cases before, and the prosecution has to prove its case beyond a 
reasonable doubt. Now take Cyc here. Cyc is pretty good law, Mr. Peele. It 
says (reading). 

PEELE — But your honor is reading from the common law. That citation 
from Cyc is no authority on this point. 

JUDGE — Well, well, I declare Mr. Peele — I've seen lawyers that thought 
Cyc was pretty good law. 

PEELE — I don't question that it's good law where it applies, but Cyc is 
referring to the rule fixed by the common law. Now we have a statute that was 
passed here in 1909. And a statute prevails over the common law, doesn't it, 
Judge? Doesn't it, now? 

JUDGE — Yes, yes. It certainly does. You don't have to tell me those 
things, Mr. Peele. Now here's an Indiana case that holds just the same as 
those others. There's some mighty good law comes out of Indiana. 

PEELE — But, your honor, that Indiana case has got nothing to do with 
the Washington statute. Your honor has not said a single word about the Wash- 
ington statute. 

JUDGE — Well, now, Mr. Peele, I have heard you at considerable length 
and I think you have failed to sustain your jDoint. I shall have to rule against 
you. (Exception noted.) 

PEELE — Joseph Golden. (Golden is sworn.) Mr. Golden, did Mr. Jarvis 
handle any of the funds of the Debs meeting, held in this city last September? 

WALTERS — I object to that question as being incompetent, irrelevant, 
and immaterial to he issues in the case. 

Twenty-six 



AND HIS FRIENDS 

JUDGE — The objection is sustained. 

PEELE — Mr. Golden will } t ou state who did handle the funds of that 
meeting ? 

WALTERS — I object to that question as being incompetent, irrelevant, 
and immaterial to the issues in the case. 
JUDGE — Objection is sustained. 

PEELE — Did you ever hear of any money being missing from those funds? 

WALTERS — Same objection. 

JUDGE — Objection sustained. 

PEELE — Who was the treasurer of your campaign committee? 

WALTERS — Same objection. 

JUDGE — Objection sustained. 

PEELE — On what ground is the objection sustained, your honor? 

JUDGE — You have not charged the defendant with publishing a false 
article. You have simply charged him with malice. Now you are trying to 
prove that this article is not true, and after you have rested your case. 

PEELE — But, your honor, the gist of the action for libel is malice, and 
the indictment need not charge falsity. As I tried to show your honor before, 
the authorities all agree that under a statute similar to our statute, the truth 
of the article is a matter of defense, and the burden is on the defense. Your 
honor overruled me on that, but I wish to make this point — that the defendants 
have themselves admitted that the article was false. They claim that they 
offered to publish a retraction. They did not publish it. They probably did 
not offer to. But the fact that they claim to have offered is a confession that 
the article was not true. But they say "Oh, we had no malice and therefore are 
not guilty," but, your honor, the law says that it is not necessary to prove malice 
because malice will be preseumed from the fact that the article is false and no 
reasonable effort was made to establish its truth. 

JUDGE — Oh, now, Mr. Peele, you can't convict anybody of a crime with- 
out proving malice; that would be contrary to common sense and decency. 

PEELE — Your honor, malice in law does not mean personal malice. It 
simply means knowingh' doing a wrongful act; that is sufficient except in mur- 
der and in those crimes where you have to prove a specific intent. 

JUDGE — Well, now you've always got to show a malicious intent. If you 
killed a man accidentally, they couldn't convict you of murder. They would 
have to prove a mailicious intent. 

PEELE — But, your honor, murder is a very different kind of a crime. 
That kind of malice is not the same as malice in libel. 

JUDGE — Yes, yes, Mr. Peele. I understand criminal law, but now, here's 
a case. A judge of this Superior Court went hunting in the woods, another 
hunter shot and killed him. But he wasn't convicted of murder. You see. 
there's got to be malicious intent. 

PEELE — Your honor, you're still talking about killing somebody. In 
libel all you have to show is that the defendant wilfully did the act. The lav- 
says that the publication shall be deemed malicious — deemed malicious, your 
honor. 

Twenty-seven 



THE COLONEL 

JUDGE — Why, I wouldn't convict a man of stealing a pig without prov- 
ing the intent. I remember a case in Indiana where a man accidentally shot 
another. He had no malicious intent, however. He may have been a little 
careless, but he didn't mean to do it. Well, he wasn't found guilty of any 
crime. We didn't do things that way in Indiana. 

PEELE — Judge, this is not Indiana, and this is not a case of killing any- 
one. This is an action for libel in the State of Washington. And the libel law 
of Washington means, if it means anything, that if one man publishes some- 
thing charging another with a crime falsely, and he had no reasonable grounds 
to believe it true, or having reasonable grounds, did not publish it for good 
and justifiable ends, then the law will presume that it was malicious. And he 
ought to be found guilty. When the publisher of a big newspaper, simply be- 
cause he has the power, will take away a man's reputation in a breath, charging 
him with an odious crime on an idle rumor, or no rumor at all, sending his re- 
porter to find out the truth from a man who could not possibly know the truth, 
and then sending the lie broadcast, I say he ought to be found guilty. (Ap- 
plause.) 

JUDGE — The next man that does that will go to jail. This is no town 
hall meeting. This is a court of justice. You can't come in here and run this 
court. I can send you all to jail. Yes, I can. I did it so quick to a fellow 
the other day that he didn't know where he was at. 

Well, as I said before, Mr. Peele, you've got to show an intent. You can't 
take any chances presuming things when you're trying a man for a crime. I 
will overrule you on that, Mr. Peele. (Exception noted.) 

PEELE — Well, if your Honor will not concede that malice is presumed, 
we have at least a right to rebut the evidence of the defense as to malice. I 
wish to question this witness for the purpose of showing that the testimony of 
the defendant that he had no malice is not true, and that there was malice in 
fact. 

JUDGE — I can't allow you to do that. You should have done that before. 

PEELE — Why, your honor, I never had a chance before. I couldn't rebut 
the evidence of the defense before that evidence was in. This is the time for 
rebuttal evidence. 

JUDGE — Well, the fact that the editor of the Crimes told Jarvis that he 
would print a correction, and Jarvis refused is pretty good evidence that there 
was no malice. 

PEELE — But, your honor, you can't assume that that was true simply 
because the defendant said so. He gives some hearsay evidence about what 
passed between his city editor and two Socialists. Now we have two witnesses 
to their one to prove that what he says is not true, and you won't hear our wit- 
nesses. 

JUDGE — Well, if you don't like my ruling you can take an appeal. 

PEELE — But if the Court directs a verdict of acquittal there will not be 
any appeal. Isn't that so? 

JUDGE — Yes, that is so. (Golden is excused.) 

PEELE — Your honor, the defendant says he has no malice. We can show, 
if the Court will let us, that the defendant published a large number of other 
newspaper articles, all of them showing malice toward Hulet M. Wells, and that 

Twenty-eight 



AND HIS FRIENDS 

this article headed "Hulet M. Wells' Friend Missing" was published out of 
malice toward Wells. Do yon rule that we cannot put that evidence in? 

JUDGE — Yes, that is my ruling. 

PEELE— I'm done. 

MR. WALTERS: At this time, your honor, on behalf of the defendants, 
I desire to move for a directed verdict of acquittal on the ground that the evi- 
dence introduced by the state is entirely insufficient to warrant the submission 
of any question to this jury, and I base my motion, your honor, on several 
grounds. 

First: An examination of this alleged libellous article will disclose that 
it is not libellous. The article itself — assuming that the state had met the 
obligation resting upon it in the matter of proof — the article itself was not 
a libellous article. 

"Now if your honor will notice the article. It is simply a news item. It 
does not charge anything. It says it was 'rumored' and 'reported,' and the like. 
Now that is a fact and it is disclosed here affirmatively by the evidence. There 
is no dispute that it was rumored — that there was a rumor. 

There is no dispute, your honor, so I say that the evidence here, instead 
of showing the falsity of the article, affirmatively shows that everything charged 
here is true. They have not alleged that the article published was false. 

"Your Honor can see from this article that it simply refers to a rumor and 
a report, and the evidence here — without dispute and without contradiction — 
shows that there was such a rumor and such a report and this article does not 
do anything more than to publish the fact of there being such a rumor and such 
a report. 

"There is no charge that Jarvis did embezzle anything. There is no 
charge that he was a fugitive from justice; the article says that it simply was 
rumored that such was the fact. A newspaper is supposed to publish the news 
and this was turned in as a news item to The Crimes and was published as 
such in good faith after Colonel Blather had taken steps to ascertain whether 
or not there was in fact such a rumor in existence. 

"When he ascertained that such a rumor was in existence, this article was 
published in good faith and without any malice — there could not have been 
any malice because he did not know Jarvis and did not know anything about 
him or never had met him. Jarvis was a complete stranger to him. 

"The indictment is wholly insufficient on another ground. Much of this 
article is absolutely unobjectionable. By no contortion, by no construction, 
could it be objected to or found fault with. That being so, it was their place 
to point out the particular part of the article that is claimed to be libellous, and 
to have pointed it out in the indictment, and unless they have done so, the in- 
dictment is wholly insufficient." 

PEELE — If the Court please. I wish to briefly reply to several misstate- 
ments of counsel both as to law and to fact. Counsel has stated quite seriously 
that there is a "well-known rule of law" that requires the libellous part of the 
publication to be separated from the remainder of the article. 

Counsel failed to tell where that "well-Jcnotvn rule of law" might be found. 
Now, your honor knows ; and I think Mr. Walters knows, that there is no "well- 

Twenty-nine 



THE COLONEL 

known rule of law" or any other kind of law that requires such a thing in a 
case like this. 

There is a rule, your honor, that where an article charged as libel is not 
clearly libellous on its face, that is, where the words would be innocent in 
ordinary circumstances, then the law requires these objectionable words to be 
separated and explained. 

For instance, if, in this case, some other paper, say a Socialist paper, had 
commented on this action, and had said that Col. Blather had "seen" Judge 
Humpty Dumpty, and had "fixed things up," now assuming that that was 
libellous, then an indictment would have to explain the libellous meaning, be- 
cause ordinarily it is not wrong for one man to "see" another. 

Now, I suppose that was the "well-known rule of law" that Mr. Walters 
referred to. But it has, of course, no application to this case, because the words 
here are libellous per se. 

They charge not only the elements of a crime, but they call the crime by 
its legal name — embezzlement. There is nothing here to explain. Everybody 
knows what embezzlement means. And in such a case it is the usual custom to 
include the whole publication in the indictment. 

This objection of counsel is so trifling that I will not insult the intelligence 
of the Court by discussing it further. 

Then counsel says that there is no charge here that Jarvis took the money, 
but only that there was a rumor to that effect. I need only to read the article 
to answer that. 

The headline says "Hulet Wells' Friend Missing With $1,000." It does 
not say that there was a rumor that he was missing with one thousand dollars. 
No; it states positively that such is a fact. 

Thousands of people read no further than the headline and the name of 
the person to whom it referred. The headline alone is sufficient to bear out the 
charge of criminal libel. 

But we do not depend on that alone. The body of the article makes this 
positive charge: "With $1,000 in his pocket, the proceeds of the Debs meeting, 
Joseph Jarvis has disappeared from Seattle." Every word of that statement 
is a malicious lie. 

Now, what does it say was rumored? Why it was rumored that he had 
gone to England. Well, we do not care what these defendants say as to his 
supposed destination. They can say he went to China if they want to. 

The defendant's crime consists in the publication that Jarvis took this 
money, not their statement of the rumor that he was on his way to England. 

One more point I wish to make, and then I am through. Counsel says the 
defendants made a fair and impartial investigation of the rumor. Why all the 
evidence we have that there was any rumor, is some hearsay evidence about 
what a reporter said, and they never produced the reporter. 

Then what did Col. Blather do, according to his own story? Why, he told 
the reporter to see what Judge Winslow had to say, although Jarvis was still 
living at his usual residence, and although the Socialist headquarters were with- 
in a few blocks of the Crimes office. 

Thirty 



AND HIS FRIENDS 

Well, the reporter comes back and says that Judge Winslow knew noth- 
ing about it. What then? Col. Blather himself swears that he told the re- 
porter then to write this lie up anyway and send it over the city* and state. 

That is the "fair and impartial investigation" that was made. 

Now, your honor, if you take this case from the jury, you are saying that 
the law will not protect the reputation of decent men. You are giving to unscru- 
pulous publishers not liberty, but license. 

It is the right and the duty of these men and women who have sat here 
and listened to such evidence as the Court would admit, to say whether they 
have been convinced of the defendants' guilt. 

And I say to the Court that if you refuse them that right, then you might 
as well wipe the libel law off the statute books of the state. 

JUDGE HUMPTY DUMPTY— When I first commenced studying law 
I was taught that in all crimes there must be criminal intent and that unless a 
man did something with a criminal mind — unless he did something criminal, 
he would not be liable to punishment under the criminal law, and in order to 
convict a man where you allege he maliciously did a thing or did it in such a 
reckless manner as to amount to intent, you must prove the intent. 

Now, in this case the state has absolutely failed to prove that it was done 
recklessly or anything of the kind. 

Now these newspapers, all of them, are printing news and whenever any- 
thing comes up that they can make a story out of, they investigate it and then 
publish the story, and if we are going to send them all to jail for a thing of 
that kind, where they tell the facts and do it bona fide and in good faith, we 
will not have room enough to keep them all. 

Now I do not believe in this case that Colonel Blather or C. B. Blather 
had any malice at all. They did not do this malicioush r . Now, the authorities 
are — and they are pretty respectable authorities (I used to think so when I 
practiced under them) — that in all cases, all criminal cases, .you must prove 
the facts alleged in your indictment beyond a reasonable doubt, and that if 
there was a reasonable doubt, then the defendant must be acquitted. 

Now, Brother Peele challenged me to submit this to the iurv. I know this 
jury and they would not be out three minutes in this case. It would be more 
or less a useless waste of time to submit it to them. I know the action of their 
minds. I have followed them during the trial of the case here. They belong 
to this court, most of them; they have been in this department, and if I tell this 
jury that they must find beyond a reasonable doubt that Colonel Blather and 
C. B. Blather published this maliciously and without justification or excuse, 
they will find them not guilty. But there is no use taking the time in this 
matter and there is no dispute of the fact that they did act in good faith and 
that they were justified. 

This is a prosecution against the peace and dignity of the state of Wash- 
ington. Jarvis has nothing to do with this. Wells has nothing to do with this. 
The Socialist Party is not running this, and it is only a question now as to 
whether, as between the state of Washington and Mr. Blather and his son, they 
have done something that has offended the peace and dignity of the state of 
Washington. 

Thirty-one 



THE COLONEL AND HIS FRIENDS 

Now they come in here and say they did publish this, but that they made 
inquiry and that they followed the statute: that they made it upon an honest 
belief that it was true — they did the only thing they could do. 

Mr. Peele has said, "Oh, he sent his reporters around." Well, whom 
would he send? If someone would come and malign me, I would send Captain 
Hill, my bailiff, after them, or someone around the courthouse. Would Mr. 
Peele come in and say, "Oh, you sent Captain Hill or someone around the 
courthouse to find out about it?" 

Now, Colonel Blather did the best he could. He got his reporter and 
sent him out and he has that right. They are hired men. They work for 
him and they have the right to rely on such reports. He sent them out to see 
whether there was anything in the rumor and they came back and told him 
there was. 

And another thing about it, Jarvis himself testifies that that day he was 
not here in town. Well now. suppose you had been around after somebody 
for stealing something and found that the fellow had gone and the rumor is 
out that he had been working for somebody and had taken money and that he 
was gone, and you did not find him after hunting him up where he usually had 
stopped, it might lead you to believe that it was true. 

"In this case, when they found Jarvis was gone; when they found the 
report here that the money was gone and Jarvis was gone at the same time, 
why they had reason to believe and honestly believed that the facts were true. 

"So, in this matter, I will appoint this gentleman on the front seat as fore- 
man of this jury and you will sign your name to the verdict. 

{Judge takes a prepared verdict from his desk and hands it to first juror 
to sign. Juror signs it without looking at it. Judge hands it to clerk.) 

CLERK (reading)— We, the jury, find the defendants NOT GUILTY. 

(Orchestra plays "America.") 

FINIS 




Thirty-two 



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